1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an openable panel of a motor vehicle, comprising an electric lock that includes an opening lever, an operating member that is mounted on the openable panel at a distance from said lock and that can be operated manually by a user from the outside of the openable panel, and a force transmission element that connects the operating member to the lock opening lever, which lock can move from a closed condition preventing the panel from being opened to an open condition in which the panel can be opened in response to the operation of the opening lever with the aid of the operating member.
2. Description of the Related Art
In present-day motor vehicles it is sometimes impossible to unlock the lock of an openable panel, such as a door or tailgate, in which the operating member, such as a pivoting plate or lever incorporated into the handle of the door or into the tailgate, has been operated by a driver or a passenger trying to open the door or tailgate of the vehicle from the outside of said vehicle. Such a situation can, for example, arise with a vehicle fitted with central locking/unlocking of the locks on the doors and tailgate or luggage compartment of the motor vehicle, when a passenger operates the operating member built into the handle of a door or the operating member that opens the tailgate or luggage compartment, immediately before the driver has unlocked the locks using a key or a remote control.
The situation described above can also occur with vehicles fitted with a so-called xe2x80x9chands-freexe2x80x9d access system whereby a remote exchange of data is set up by a wireless communication between a recognition device installed in the vehicle and an identification means carried by a user, access to the vehicle being authorized only when the recognition device has authenticated the identification means. Although this exchange of data, the authentication of the identification means, the sending of the unlocking command to the locks and the unlocking operation itself, that is the displacement of a locking/unlocking member in each lock from its locked position to its unlocked position by means of an electromechanical actuator (electric motor or electromagnet) in response to the unlocking command, takes very little time (usually less than one second), it can nevertheless happen that, if the user operates the operating member built into the handle of a door very quickly, said operating member reaches the end of its travel for actuating the lock opening lever before the electromechanical actuator has moved the locking/unlocking member of the lock to its unlocked position or just as said locking/unlocking member reaches its unlocked position. In this case the lock cannot be placed in its open condition and the door, or other openable panel of the vehicle, cannot be opened. The user must then release the operating member and operate it a second time in order to be able to open the door or other openable panel of the vehicle. To have to work the operating member twice is of course unwelcome, especially if the user is in a hurry.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a solution to save the user having to work twice on the operating member built into a door handle or an openable panel such as, for example, a tailgate of a motor vehicle, in order to open said door or other openable panel.
For this purpose the invention provides an openable panel of the type defined in the preamble, wherein the force transmission element is in two parts connected to each other by an energy storage device, a first part of the two parts being connected to the operating member and the second part being connected to the lock opening lever, and wherein there is an immobilizing means that immobilizes the second part of the force transmission element when the lock is in a locked condition and that releases said second part of the force transmission element in response to an unlocking command.
With such an arrangement, if the user operates the operating member so quickly that the immobilizing means releases the second part of the force transmission element in response to the unlocking command only at the moment when the operating member completes or has nearly completed its operating travel, the second part of the force transmission element remains immobilized by the immobilizing means throughout all or nearly all of the actuating travel of the operating member. During this period, the energy storage device stores energy under the action of the operating member and of the first part of the force transmission element. Then, as soon as the immobilizing member releases the second part of the force transmission element in response to the unlocking command, at about the instant when the operating member completes its actuating travel, the energy stored in the storage device is released and used to operate the lock opening lever, thereby causing the latter to switch from its closed condition to its open condition. The user can then open the openable panel of the vehicle without having to operate the operating member a second time.
In a first embodiment of the invention, the second part of the force transmission element comprises a stop, and the immobilizing means is a plate that pivots between an active position, in which it lies more or less at right angles to the direction of movement of the force transmission element and acts on said stop to immobilize the second part of the force transmission element, and a retracted position in which said plate releases the stop so that the second part of the force transmission element can operate the lock opening lever.
In a second embodiment of the present invention, the second part of the force transmission element is a rod with a groove, and the immobilizing means is a pin or a fork capable of translational movement in the direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the force transmission element, between an active position in which the pin or fork is engaged in said groove, to immobilize the second part of the force transmission element, and a retracted position in which the pin or fork is out of said groove and releases the second part of the force transmission element so that it can operate the lock opening lever.
The lock of the openable panel according to the invention may also include, as in the prior art, a locking/unlocking member that inhibits or allows for the switching of the lock from its closed condition to its open condition depending on whether it is in a locked position or in an unlocked position, and that can be moved from its locked position to its unlocked position in response to said unlocking command.
If such a locking/unlocking member is provided, the immobilizing means, that is the plate, the pin or the fork, can be connected by another force transmission element to the locking/unlocking member. Thus, when the latter is moved from its locking position to its unlocking position in response to the unlocking command, it carries with it, via said other force transmission element, the immobilizing means, causing it to move from its active position to its retracted position in response to said unlocking command.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, said immobilizing means, that is the plate, the pin or the fork, is connected to an electromechanical actuator which moves said immobilizing means from its active position to its retracted position in response to said unlocking command. In this form, the immobilizing means may in itself be a locking/unlocking member that inhibits or authorizes the switching of the lock from its closed condition to its open condition depending on whether it is in its active position or in its retracted position, in addition to the locking/unlocking member that may be included in the lock or as a substitute.
If the immobilizing means is a pin or fork, then, in accordance with the second embodiment of the invention, the pin or fork may comprise an enlargement engaged in an oblong slot in an elongate rectangular plate which pivots between a first position in which it acts, by means of a first longitudinal edge of its slot, on the enlargement of the pin or fork in order to keep the latter in its active position, and a second position in which said plate acts, by means of a second longitudinal edge of its slot, on the enlargement of the pin or fork, in order to keep the latter in its retracted position.
In this situation, said plate can be connected by another force transmission element to the locking/unlocking member which moves said plate from its first position to its second position when it itself is moved from its locking position to its unlocking position in response to the unlocking command.
In an alternative embodiment, said plate can be connected to an electromechanical actuator which moves this plate from its first position to its second position in response to said unlocking command.